Pamuk's nonfiction catalogue of his Museum of Innocence in Istanbul, walking through the museum's vitrines box by box while recounting how he collected everyday objects (Hilton Hotel postcards, matchbooks, photographs) to build the museum alongside his novel, and reflecting on the psychology of collecting, waiting, and time.
Books mentioned in The Innocence of Objects (4)
Physics by Aristotle: “Just as in Aristotle's Physics, Time emerges when individual moments shrink into themselves, so when objects do the same, they lose their stories.”
The Seven Lamps of Architecture by John Ruskin: “In the "Memory" section of The Seven Lamps of Architecture, John Ruskin writes about picturesque beauty and explains the accidental beauty that arises from the encounter between architectural features and vegetation, shadows and stains.”
Maelzel's Chess Player by Edgar Allan Poe: “I remember excitedly telling Kemal about Edgar Allan Poe's 1836 essay, "Maelzel's Chess Player."”
Lemon Trees by Eugenio Montale: “See, in these silences in which things yield and seem about to betray their ultimate secret. —"Lemon Trees," Eugenio Montale (epigraph, translated by Irma Brandeis)”